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Methane worse than carbon dioxide (8/27/12)

Editor:

The big news out of the U.S. Energy Information Administration earlier this month was that U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions decreased during the warmest winter on record. Shocking.

Although the report acknowledged that record warmth contributed to the decrease, as did reduced gasoline demand, it suggested that increased use of natural gas played a role. Of course, the most irresponsible headlines that followed referred only to natural gas.

The report said that the emissions are the lowest in 20 years.

Anyone who actually looked at the report could see that emissions from natural gas have actually increased over that 20-year period.

Additionally, what the three-page report does not make clear is that the figures are based on consumption, not production. It has been well-documented by scholars at Cornell and Duke universities that the process of extracting natural gas from shale causes methane to migrate into the atmosphere, making natural gas just as dirty as coal and oil.

Methane, by the way, is a more efficient greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, exacerbating the problem of climate change. That is no cause for optimism.